Faculty of the Built Environment (FBE), Associate Dean Research, Professor Martin Loosemore, and Director of Research Students, Professor Patrick Zou, have been awarded the prestigious UK Chartered Institute of Building’s (CIOB) International Construction Project Management Association (ICPMA) Award for their contribution to the Risk Management system developed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“We feel extremely honored to receive this award in recognition of both the collaborative research project with Tsinghua University and in being chosen to assist in the risk management planning for the Beijing Olympics”, said Prof. Loosemore.

“We could not have achieved this without the support of BOCOG and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology – this award is testimony of the successful multidimensional and multilateral partnerships”, he added.

The Awards were established by CIOB to encourage innovation and research, and to create a greater awareness of the importance of higher education in the industry. The collaborative Beijing Olympics Risk Management project stood-out among its competitors due to the increased recognition of the importance of risk management within the international construction industry.

“The success of the project was attributed to identifying much-needed frontier international construction management issues, formulating a truly collaborative research team which was built-on their knowledge and expertise, as well as the great support provided by the Faculty”, said Prof. Zou.

Professor Zou, went further to say that, “I hope that the risk management lessons learned from the process will be helpful to London 2012 Olympics venue constructions and China’s construction industry as a whole”.

Patrick Zou, Dongping Fang (Tsuinghua University), and Matrin Loosemore at the
COIB awards ceremony in UK

Faculty Dean, Professor Peter Murphy, in congratulating his colleagues, remarked that “this award is another example of the Faculty’s exceptional academic talent and ongoing commitment to exploring new and interesting partnership opportunities”.

The academic pair received their award at the CIOB Awards Evening event in the CIOB’s Headquarter in London UK on the 14 May, and spoke lightheartedly about looking forward to watching the excitement of the upcoming Olympics unfold.

“We will be watching with great interest the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, knowing all too well the enormous risks overcome to deliver the games”, Prof. Loosemore.